Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development

1st Report to the Nation on Youth Courts and Teen Courts

The 1st Report to the Nation on Youth Courts and Teen Courts: 1993 to 2008: The Conflict Resolution Education Connection

This national report documents significant highlights and events over a fifteen (15) year period of unprecedented and historic growth of this groundbreaking American Juvenile Justice program that utilizes volunteer youth to help sentence their peers. The report begins in 1993, when fewer than 75 local youth and teen courts existed in just about a dozen states. The report concludes 15 years later in 2008, when more than a record 1,000 local communities operate these local juvenile justice programs. Historic numbers of youth and adults are now involved, as more than 111,868 juvenile cases were referred to local youth and teen courts and more than 133,832 volunteers, to include both youth and adults who volunteered to help with the disposition and sentencing of these juvenile cases. The report was researched and written by Scott Bernard Peterson.